FORESTRY ON DOMINION LANDS. 



E. Stewart, Dominion Superintendent of Forestry. 



If I know anything of the object of the convener of this 

 great convention in calhng you together it was to obtain the 

 views of the people from all parts of the Dominion in order 

 that good practical results might follow your deliberations. If 

 we only meet and indulge in a pleasant academical discussion, 

 without expressing some opinions of what should be done in a 

 practical way, not only to preserve, but to propagate our great 

 forests, this meeting will fall far short of its opportunities. 

 The fact is, the matters inviting our attention in this connection 

 are far more than academical ; they are live issues that demand 

 of the people of the country immediate action, and in the few 

 minutes at my disposal I will ask your attention, first, to the 

 extent of the forests under Dominion control ; second, to what we 

 are doing at present regarding them; third, what in my opinion 

 should be done ; and fourth, make but a very brief reference to 

 afforestation on the plains. 



When our north-western possessions are mentioned, the 

 picture generally suggested is that of vast prairies stretching for 

 hundreds of miles on every hand unrelieved by a single tree. 

 Now while this is true of a ver}^ large extent of country it rep- 

 resents only a small part of the total land area owned and con- 

 trolled by the Federal Government. 



According to the census returns for 1901, the total land area 

 under the control of the Dominion Government is 2,656,200 

 square miles. Of this, the bare prairie probably occupies 

 160,000,000 acres, or 250,000 square miles. The barren lands 

 of the far north I have elsewhere estimated at four times that of 

 the prairie, or 640,000,000 acres, or 1,000,000 square miles. 

 These two would make 1,250,000 square miles of treeless land, 

 and subtracting this from the total land area under federal control 

 will give us 1,406,200 square miles, which is more or less wooded. 

 The total land area owned by the provinces aggregates only 

 963,618 square miles, so that the Dominion timbered lands, 

 according to this estimate, exceed the total land area, both 

 timbered and cleared up of all the old provinces by 442,582 

 square miles. 



But it may be truly said that on a very large proportion of 

 this the forest growth is of little value for commercial purposes. 



